The Anatomy of a Godly Prayer
Introduction: The Pressure Cooker of Faithfulness
The life of a faithful Christian is a life lived under pressure. It is the pressure of a world that despises our King and therefore despises us. The world scoffs at our message, mocks our morality, and demands that we produce our God for inspection, as though He were a specimen in a jar. "Where is the promise of His coming?" they ask, just as Peter warned they would. "For since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation" (2 Peter 3:4). The temptation for the believer is to buckle under this constant, low-grade mockery. The temptation is to either trim the message to make it more palatable or to begin to doubt the God who gave the message.
This is precisely the situation in which the prophet Jeremiah finds himself. He is not facing abstract philosophical objections. He is enduring the taunts and jeers of his own people, men who know his face. He has been preaching a message of covenantal judgment, of impending doom for an unrepentant Judah. But the doom has not yet arrived. And so the wise men of the world, the pragmatists, the scoffers, point their fingers and laugh. "Where is the word of Yahweh? Let it come now!" they say. In other words, "Put up or shut up."
Jeremiah's response to this is a masterclass for every believer who has ever felt the sting of ridicule for his faith. He does not turn to argue with the mockers. He does not engage in a horizontal debate. He turns vertically. He takes his complaint, his fear, his plea for vindication, and his raw honesty directly to the throne of God. This passage is the anatomy of a godly prayer in the midst of affliction. It shows us where to go when the world demands an answer we cannot give on its timetable. We do not turn to face the crowd; we turn to face our God.
The Text
Heal me, O Yahweh, and I will be healed;
Save me and I will be saved,
For You are my praise.
Behold, they keep saying to me,
“Where is the word of Yahweh?
Let it come now!”
But as for me, I have not hurried away from being a shepherd after You,
Nor have I longed for the sickening day;
You Yourself know that the utterance of my lips
Was in Your presence.
Do not be a terror to me;
You are my refuge in the day of calamity.
Let those who pursue me be put to shame, but as for me, let me not be put to shame;
Let them be dismayed, but let me not be dismayed.
Bring on them a day of calamity,
And crush them with twofold crushing!
(Jeremiah 17:14-18 LSB)
Absolute Dependence (v. 14)
The prayer begins not with the problem, but with the solution. Jeremiah grounds himself in the character and power of God.
"Heal me, O Yahweh, and I will be healed; Save me and I will be saved, For You are my praise." (Jeremiah 17:14)
This is a cry of absolute reliance. The wounds Jeremiah suffers are not merely physical; they are the deep cuts of scorn, rejection, and isolation. He knows he cannot heal himself with positive thinking or psychological platitudes. He knows he cannot save himself from the plots of his enemies. His healing and his salvation are entirely contingent on a divine act.
The logic here is gloriously simple and profound. "If You heal me, then I will be truly healed." "If You save me, then my salvation is certain." There is no other source. This is a complete rejection of all human autonomy and self-sufficiency. Jeremiah understands that God is not one option among many; He is the only option. All other wells are broken cisterns that can hold no water.
And why does he want this healing and salvation? "For You are my praise." This is the anchor of the entire prayer. His ultimate goal is not his own comfort, but God's glory. If Jeremiah is vindicated by his own cleverness, then Jeremiah gets the praise. But if God intervenes to heal and save His servant, then God gets the praise. This prayer is not a selfish plea for relief, but a zealous desire for God's name to be magnified through his life and deliverance.
The Scoffer's Taunt (v. 15)
Having established his foundation, Jeremiah now presents the problem to God. He reports the words of his enemies.
"Behold, they keep saying to me, 'Where is the word of Yahweh? Let it come now!'" (Jeremiah 17:15)
This is the central taunt. It is a challenge born of arrogant unbelief. They are treating God's prophetic word like a weather forecast that failed to materialize. Their demand, "Let it come now!" reveals the heart of sinful man. Man wants to be the master of his own clock. He demands that God operate on a human timetable, and if God does not comply, He is dismissed as either powerless or non-existent.
This is the ancient root of all modern skepticism. The unbeliever demands a sign, a miracle on demand, a proof that satisfies his own criteria. He refuses to live by faith in the God who is Lord over time itself. The scoffers are not neutral observers; they are hostile prosecutors, and their case is built on the foundation of God's apparent delay. They are using God's patience, which is meant to lead them to repentance, as ammunition for their rebellion.
The Prophet's Clear Conscience (v. 16)
In the face of their accusations, Jeremiah does not defend himself to them. Instead, he makes his appeal to the only Judge who matters.
"But as for me, I have not hurried away from being a shepherd after You, Nor have I longed for the sickening day; You Yourself know that the utterance of my lips Was in Your presence." (Jeremiah 17:16)
This is a solemn appeal to his own integrity before God. First, he affirms his faithfulness to his calling. "I have not hurried away from being a shepherd after You." In other words, "I didn't quit when the sheep started to bite. I didn't abandon my post when the work became difficult and thankless. I followed You." He accepted the hard calling of a shepherd over a rebellious flock.
Second, he affirms the disposition of his heart. "Nor have I longed for the sickening day." A true prophet of God takes no perverse delight in the judgment he proclaims. He is not a ghoul, eagerly awaiting destruction. The coming calamity is a "sickening day," a day of horror. Jeremiah's heart breaks for the very people who mock him. He speaks the hard truth not out of malice, but out of loving obedience to God.
Finally, he rests his case on God's omniscience. "You Yourself know." He knows that men can misjudge his motives, but God cannot. He says that his words, "the utterance of my lips," were spoken "in Your presence." He lived and spoke Coram Deo, before the face of God. His conscience is clear before the one audience that has the right to judge.
A Plea for Refuge (v. 17)
From this place of integrity, Jeremiah makes his most personal and vulnerable plea.
"Do not be a terror to me; You are my refuge in the day of calamity." (Jeremiah 17:17)
This is a stunningly honest request. The greatest fear of a man of God is not the terror that men can bring, but the terror of an alienated God. Jeremiah's entire message was about God being a terror to the wicked. His deepest fear is that in some way, he might find God to be a terror to him. It is the cry of a man who knows that if God is against him, it does not matter who is for him.
But even in his fear, he anchors himself in the truth. He preaches to his own soul. "You are my refuge in the day of calamity." He affirms the reality of God's character even as he pleads for the experience of it. He knows that the very day of judgment he preaches is the day he will need God as his only shelter. This is what faith does. It lays hold of God's promises in the teeth of fear and doubt and speaks them back to God.
A Prayer for Justice (v. 18)
The prayer concludes with what many moderns find uncomfortable: a raw, unflinching call for God to act in justice. This is an imprecatory prayer.
"Let those who pursue me be put to shame, but as for me, let me not be put to shame; Let them be dismayed, but let me not be dismayed. Bring on them a day of calamity, And crush them with twofold crushing!" (Jeremiah 17:18)
This is not a sinful prayer for personal revenge. It is a righteous prayer for divine vindication. The central issue is shame. Who will be shown to be right in the end? Will it be the scoffers who claim God's word is a lie? Or will it be God's prophet? Jeremiah prays that the shame of being proven wrong, of having one's entire worldview crumble, would fall upon his persecutors, not upon him. He prays that they would be dismayed, terrified by the reality of the God they mocked.
He asks God to do exactly what God has already promised to do: "Bring on them a day of calamity." He is aligning his prayer with God's revealed, covenantal will. And the request to "crush them with twofold crushing" is not hyperbole. It is covenantal language. The Mosaic law required double restitution for certain thefts (Ex. 22:7). Jeremiah is asking for perfect justice, for God to repay them according to His own righteous standards. He is handing vengeance over to God, which is precisely where it belongs.
Conclusion: The Vindicated Word
Jeremiah's prayer provides a divine template for every believer under fire. We begin by acknowledging our total dependence on God for salvation and healing, making His praise our ultimate aim. We honestly lay out the taunts of the world before Him. We appeal to a conscience cleared by grace, resting in God's perfect knowledge of our hearts. We cry out to Him as our only refuge. And we confidently ask Him to do what He has promised to do: to bring justice, to vindicate His truth, and to put His enemies to shame.
This entire prayer finds its ultimate fulfillment in the Lord Jesus Christ. He was the ultimate faithful shepherd, who did not hurry away from His task. He endured the scorn of men who demanded, "Show us a sign!" He did not long for the sickening day of the cross, praying, "Let this cup pass from Me," yet He submitted, saying, "Not My will, but Yours, be done."
On that cross, God became a terror to Him, so that He might be a refuge for us. He was put to shame, stripped naked and mocked, so that we would never be put to shame. He was crushed with a twofold crushing, bearing the full measure of divine wrath and human hatred, so that we might be healed. Because He endured the day of calamity, we have a refuge. And because He rose from the dead, we know that a day is coming when every knee will bow, and every scoffer's tongue will be silenced, and God's Word will be vindicated forever.